Gunpowder Milkshake is easily one of the most enjoyable films I watched this year, and its companion original score composed by Frank Ilfman is right alongside it as impeccable.
Frank Ilfman’s original score for Gunpowder Milkshake is both action-packed and slowly-encompassing. A large part of it reminds me of one of my all-time favorites, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’s by Daniel Pemberton. There is something so brilliantly whimsical about it even in the darker tones the instruments are trying to convey. In every way, the score easily complimented the film brilliantly.
Sometimes you notice the greatness of an original score after the second or third watch, but seldom do you hear it so boldly and fall in love with it as quickly during the first. And that’s certainly the case with the Gunpowder Milkshake original score. It’s so compelling, the attraction is immediate.
Tracks like “A Careless Whisper,” “New Books and Clean Guns,” “Le Bonbon,” “Gunpowder Milkshake,” “Dressed to Kill,” “Scarlet’s Theme,” “Home Sweet Home?,” and even, the “Opening Titles” are masterful. There’s also “Sam’s Theme” composed by Jeff Atmajian, which is riveting on its own, and one of the tracks I have had on replay for weeks now.
Ilfman’s original score is intricate and so easy to get lost in—it does what a compelling score is meant to do best, which is to help the audience feel more immersed into the film.
There is also something to be said about how haunting the original score is and in such a way, that it is not jarring at any point. It is just brilliantly fun while simultaneously, it is emotionally compelling, and the juxtaposition of those emotions is what is so riveting about it.
Further Recommended Original Scores: Jungle Cruise by James Newton Howard
It’s almost like Stranger Things and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. scores had a baby, and listen, I’m 3,403% here for it. I love it when my worlds collide like this and especially through a score I can barely find the right words for.
Listen to the Gunpowder Milkshake original score below and tell us what your favorite tracks are.